'Golden Boy' Hangs In, 'Wife Swap' Meets Series High

CBS offered drama "Golden Boy" in a new Tuesday 10 p.m. time slot with decent but not great ratings.

Nielsen preliminary results showed a 1.8 rating/5 share among 18-49
viewers for the show about the youngest-ever New York City Police Commissioner. From CBS' point of view, "Golden Boy" was a winner because it was higher than "Vegas" -- the show it replaced -- which
in its last original episode posted a 1.5 rating.

"Golden Boy" also won its time period -- albeit against weak competition. ABC's "Body of Proof" at 1.2/3 and NBC's "Smash" came in with a
0.9/3 (the same versus the week before).

"Boy" had help -- a good sendoff from its lead-in programming. "NCIS" grabbed another dominant 3.4/10 at 8 p.m. -- the best-rated show of the night
-- and "NCIS: Los Angeles" at 9 p.m. scored a strong 2.9/8.

CBS led the night overall among 18-49 viewers with a 2.7/8; ABC and Fox tied for second -- a full rating point behind at a 1.7/5.
Univision was fourth at 1.5/4, followed by NBC at 1.1/3, Telemundo with 0.6/2 and CW at 0.5/1.

ABC's best came from "Celebrity Wife Swap" at a series-high 2.4/7 at 8 p.m. Tuesday's episode
featured Kate Gosselin and Kendra Wilkinson. Fox's "New Girl" was tops for the network with a 2.3/6.

NBC's top result came from “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers,” at a
1.3/4. Its comedies continued to struggle without decent programming lead-ins: “Go On” was at a 1.1/3; and “The New Normal” saw a 1.0/3.

CW's best was a 0.6/2 for
“Hart of Dixie” at 8 p.m., while "Cult" took a 0.3/1 at 9 p.m.

I give you one educated suggestion as to why "Golden Boy" did not do as well as the Network may have desired. They obviously ran a copious number of commercials for the show, for weeks leading up to its premiere on Tuesday. In speaking with others I work with in the industry, and certainly my thoughts as well, "The Commercials were not that great, and it was the same commercial over and over and over"! You're a Network, you should have better creative minds to cut better commercials, and certainly more than just one!